Connect 2 Help Circle Receives Funding

Monday, September 21, 2015 Southwest Institute for Families and Children with special Needs (SWI) receives funding from The Arizona Community Foundation of Flagstaff and the Forest Highlands Foundation for Connect 2 Help Circle. Tracy Grantham, Project Director of Connect 2 Help Circle, and Juliana Huereña, Operational Manager for SWI, attended the Arizona Community Foundation of Flagstaff’s 18th Annual Grants Presentation and Celebration of Nonprofit Organizations. The event was held at the High Country Conference Center, adjacent to Northern Arizona University. The ballroom was filled with over 100 organizations receiving funding from numerous donors.

Thanks to the generous donation, Connect 2 Help Circle will help families in the Flagstaff area access local resources and donations. Examples of such needed services include, shelter, clothing, books, furniture, gas money, and bus passes. The goal of the project will be to meet the immediate basic needs of families and individuals not easily or readily met by government or traditional social service agencies.

The program has made a positive impact on the community with one family stating, “When we cannot get support from any other source, C2HC is there for us. We can quickly and respectfully get emergency materials such as food and shoes for our kids, Thanks, C2HC.”

Last year the project was able to create a Beauty Day event for individuals involved in the domestic violence survivors and their children. Several women came up to us and expressed their gratitude for such a wonderful experience. A participant cried because it had been such long time since she had felt worthy or touched in a positive way that did not cause her harm. Everyone went home with a gift bag, a pamphlet on self-care and how to continue the learned pampered process at home when they were on their own. The children were so appreciative of the day as well as many of them were living in a situation of transition and the unknown. It was important for us to create an environment for them that was about feeling safe, having fun, and seeing the smiles on their mother’s faces.

Challenges:

C2HC would like to reach out to the community as an umbrella of a larger social service agency that has the capacity to store materials and donations received, as well as to increase the helper and network donor base.